


Quick kisses (but not for you!)

by Evil_Keshi



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, First Kiss, First Meetings, Fluff, Kiss cam, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-15
Updated: 2019-03-15
Packaged: 2019-11-18 13:55:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18121850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evil_Keshi/pseuds/Evil_Keshi
Summary: If Alec agreed to go to that stupid game, it was only to please Raj and try to mend things between them - not to be royally ignored by his boyfriend and feel hurt all over again... Until the stranger next to him touched his hand.





	Quick kisses (but not for you!)

**Author's Note:**

> Here it is, the Kiss Cam oneshot I was dying to write! I hope you enjoy your reading!

  


Alec eyed his boyfriend with a frown. This had to be a joke, a cruel one. Not only had Raj decided to drag him to the game when Alec had specified that he didn't really want to go but he also wasn't going to pay any attention to him? Outrageous.

Sitting to his left, Raj was focused on his phone, his thumbs disappearing in a blur as he typed message after message. Work again, probably, although Alec wasn't going to ask: last time he'd wondered, Raj had accused him of implying that he was having an affair. Alec had just been worried about his workload, for he had seen his boyfriend grow wearier along the weeks, but the thought of Raj being unfaithful had never crossed his mind. Back then, he hadn't really understood his reaction.

To be honest, Alec didn't understand the man himself these days, what with the mood swings and shutting him out, and while he had loved him, perhaps still did, he couldn't really imagine his life with him anymore. Their relationship was falling apart and Alec couldn't even say that Raj was trying to salvage whatever he could: he simply didn't seem to care. A wonder why they hadn't broken up yet.

Alec had spent days trying to figure out where they went wrong, what _he_ had done or said that could have hurt Raj as much as to install that distance between them, but he hadn't been able to find himself at fault. Perfection didn't exist and he would have understood, agreed even, that perhaps he wasn't the easiest person to live with but... Raj had never complained about the books scattered all around the office - and outside of it - or the way he never paired his socks in the drawer, just like he'd never grumped about his boyfriend's habit of hogging the blankets in the winter nor about his hoard of crocheted doilies. They each had their quirks but it had never been reason enough to pose problems in the past, so why would it start now?

When it became clear that Alec wasn't responsible for their current situation, he'd jumped to the next possible conclusion: Raj was in some sort of predicament and it was taking its toll on their relationship.

The young man had tried to clear his schedule to make more time for Raj, which had resulted in Alec turning in several articles late to the editor of his paper, quite uselessly: his boyfriend hadn't wanted to talk nor go out to spend some time together, he hadn't even agreed to order take-out and have a quiet evening lazing on the couch in their pyjamas. All in all, Alec felt like he was back in college with a sometimes ghost-like, sometimes annoying roommate. Not a good description for his boyfriend of two years.

He'd grumbled about the game today but still, the tiny part of his heart that kept hoping had thought that perhaps this could be one more opportunity to piece back together the broken shards of their relationship. However, it looked like Raj had fallen in love with his phone instead and planned on marrying it soon and really, he should have seen it coming. Alec didn't even know why he was still trying. Out of attachment for the affection that had once existed between them or for fear of the upcoming loneliness? Perhaps out of habit? No need to lie, he was already lonely. Fed up too, because he wasn't a pretty trophy to bring to the game for Raj to show that he could bang the latest Pulitzer winner and do whatever he pleased with him.

"Raj..." he called for what seemed to be the hundredth time, growing more and more frustrated by the second as Raj put one hand in the air between them, his index raised.

"Wait a minute..." he grumbled, without sparing him a glance.

Oh, no. Alec was tired of waiting for his boyfriend: tired of waiting for him to come home to their little apartment, waiting for a word of affection or even a smile. He had done his fair share of waiting, even put on a smile as he did so, but now the time had come for him to allow himself to be impatient and demanding of respect, if not affection.

That was how life worked, he guessed a bit sadly but without much bitterness, as Raj's phone pinged with yet another message. It had given him two years, more or less, of happiness and some hardships that he'd known he could go through, hand in hand with his boyfriend. Now that no one was holding his hand anymore, perhaps it was normal to have reached the end of the road, the wall beyond which he could not go except if he was on his own.

Now that he actually gave it thought, the prospect of breaking up with Raj didn't make Alec as sad as it would have six months ago... So maybe that was all the evidence he needed to prove himself that yes, this would be the right decision to make.

As much as he trusted in that conclusion, he still cast longing glances towards Raj during the match, only to be royally ignored. Timeout, that should have been the perfect time to discuss match prognostics and momentary results if nothing else, didn't bring anything better. At least during the match Alec could feign an interest in what was happening on the field but now... He just sat there awkwardly, with nothing else to do than blaming himself for believing it could get better and coming to that stupid match.

It just got worse when he realised that the famous kiss cam was scanning the crowd while the big screen displayed all sorts of happy couples, who started kissing as soon as the camera landed on them. His chest tightened with envy at the sight of these people who were having a good time, laughing after their kiss and twisting a knife into his lonely heart at the same time, before the screen suddenly showed him his own face.

"Raj!" he exclaimed as he turned to his left, suddenly excited, for he couldn't say without lying that he'd never wished before for the kiss cam to settle on him. "Raj, look!"

When his boyfriend grunted but didn't otherwise acknowledge him, Alec hurriedly shook his shoulder - if only he could get him to look up, just for a moment...

"Raj, the kiss cam!" he explained in few words, as quickly as he could, for fear of the camera moving onto another, less boring couple.

"I don't care, Alec!" Raj shouted in reply, swatting Alec's hand away, unaware of the sudden hurt fluttering across his boyfriend's face.

His heart shattered into a million pieces at the rejection, for even if he accepted that feelings could fade away, Alec couldn't tolerate that a relationship of two years would just vanish without anything akin to fondness left, not when he had done nothing to justify that.

Looking away from the man he could no longer consider as his boyfriend to focus on his trembling hands instead, Alec heard the crowd scream and boo, clearly displeased as well as sympathetic towards him, and he lifted his head to see his own teary eyes blinking back at him on the screen. Why? Why couldn't the kiss cam just go to the next couple? Wasn't the situation hurtful enough, was it really necessary to record his distress as well?

A warm hand suddenly touched his arm, startling him despite its gentleness, and when Alec followed the path leading from painted nails to deep, intense eyes, he realised that these fingers weren't Raj's. Far from it. They belonged to the young man sitting on his right, to whom he had barely paid attention during the match since he was a bit busy wallowing in his relationship issues. Now he saw him though, him and the smile present in his eyes and around the corners of his mouth, in his welcoming body language and his warm voice.

"Your lips were made to smile," the man told him out of the blue, "Mind if I help you out with that?"

Later, Alec would laugh at his own cluelessness because really, this could only lead to one thing but in that instant, while his heart felt like it had been crushed and his eyes were brimming with tears, he gaped at the man like an idiot. Chuckling, the other slowly cupped his cheeks and leaned in to place a soft kiss on his lips.

This time, Alec's heart exploded. It burst in thousands of butterflies flying away, as if freed from the pins holding them down, and suddenly he was crying in silence, overwhelmed. He could feel more care and tenderness in this kiss from a perfect stranger than there had been in his last interactions with his boyfriend and Alec didn't think before he returned the embrace as well as the kiss, sliding his mouth against the other man's until their lips parted.

The boos of the crowd had turned into excited whistling, not that Alec actually noticed them, for he was too wrapped up in these arms and that heady sensation of being loved, but someone else definitively did.

"What the fuck?!" came Raj's voice, angry and offended.

Alec closed his eyes when he pulled back, regret sour on his lips at the loss of the other's warm mouth, and he braced himself to face the music. In a way, he could understand Raj's reaction at the sight of his boyfriend in the arms of another man but at the same time... He wasn't going to apologise.

"Should I punch him for you?" the gorgeous man, whom he didn't know yet was already so close to, asked with a smirk.

"I appreciate the offer," Alec admitted with a smile, "but I hope this won't be necessary..."

The man nodded, disappointment written all over his face, and Alec couldn't help but think that with those biceps on him, one pointed glare in Raj's direction would have been enough to make him run away. _Fast_. Still, the least Alec could do was dealing with his soon-to-be ex-boyfriend by himself.

"Raj..." he started when he turned around.

"What the fuck, Alec?" Raj repeated, his mouth set in an angry line, "What do you think you're doing?"

"Getting my kiss for the camera," Alec answered calmly, "which I asked you to give me but if I recall, you didn't _care_. Well, I found someone who did."

"You're _my_ boyfriend!" Raj protested, his hand already shooting up to Alec's wrist.

He missed his target, his fingers closing around thin air, when the young man stood up and crossed his arms against his chest.

"Not anymore," Alec said.

"What?!"

"I'm tired of being your boyfriend only when you want to show me off!" he snapped, all his dejection and frustration from the previous weeks, months, coming back to the surface, and he gestured between the two of them. "Look at us! It isn't working anymore. You won't talk to me except to be rude, you won't kiss me, not even hug me to say hello in the morning... I tried, Raj, I really tried to get us on the right path again and you didn't even seem to notice or care. I don't know if you realise the damage that has been done, even now, but I'm suffering from a situation you don't want to... to acknowledge or to fix, I don't know. And I'm done."

"Done?"

"Yes, done," Alec repeated, glad that his voice wasn't shaky nor brittle but only firm and determined, like his decision. "Maybe you took me for granted or maybe you didn't think your attitude would hurt me but it did, and I'm choosing to go on without you."

"You're... You're breaking up with me?" Raj asked, looking flabbergasted.

Alec held back a sad sigh. If he wasn't mistaken, Raj seemed more upset about the fact that someone could even fathom the thought of breaking up with him than Alec actually leaving him.

"Glad you got the message right," he simply said, before he walked away.

He refused to care about the cry of outrage behind him that pushed him faster down the stairs as he rushed to the exit, but then the hurried footfalls following him made him stop. So Raj was finally realising that he had lost Alec? If he hoped to make him change his mind, he had another thing coming... However, when he wheeled around with an angry frown on his face, Alec didn't see Raj but the gorgeous stranger who'd kissed him like he had known him forever.

"O...Oh," he stuttered.

"Hey," the man said as he jogged up to him, smiling with a bit of hesitation in his eyes, "Uh... I just wanted to say that I'm sorry if I ruined your relationship back there. It wasn't my intention. I only wanted... well, to see you smile."

"Oh," he said again, flushing, "Thank you. You don't have to worry though, that was a long time coming. You just gave me the push I needed to break up with him."

"He seems like an asshole," the stranger commented, "but I might be biased."

"He wasn't always like that," Alec nuanced, although he wasn't trying to defend Raj, just... himself, maybe, for falling in love with a man who'd hurt him with his indifference. "But really, I owe you one."

"Funny you should say that," he told him, absolutely delighted, and he clapped his hands with a soft sound, "I was actually wondering if you'd give me your phone number for, you know, future reference."

Alec blinked. His... phone number? Really? He suddenly felt like he was going to cry again: the fact that a man as gorgeous and kind as the one standing in front of him could seek him out like this, after the painful disregard he'd suffered from Raj during the past few weeks... However, said stranger must have misunderstood his expression: he took a step back, his smile slipping and morphing into an apologetic frown.

"Sorry," he said, "I guess this might be a bit... early. Inappropriate. Weird, perhaps?"

"Not weirder than being kissed by a perfect stranger at a game," Alec assured him with a smile, taking his phone out of his jeans. "I was just surprised you'd want... to see me again, I guess."

"It's alright if _you_ don't," the other said, "I'd understand. I can take no for an answer."

"Lucky I'm not saying no, then," Alec answered, holding his phone out to the beautiful hands of Mister Stranger.

He watched the graceful fingers type the number carefully, afraid to miss a digit and lose all possibility of staying in touch, and the small smile dancing on the man's lips made Alec's heart beat with more conviction, as if a second life was offered to it, to him, with a promise of new adventures.

The road he couldn't walk with Raj any longer had given way to a crossroad, made of parallel universes where he didn't give out his contact details or didn't answer to a decisive phone call but the only one he could picture leading him toward happiness was the path he was walking on right this second, even as he blushed while the other man squeezed his hand instead of just dropping the phone back into his palm.

"I'm Magnus," the stranger said with a chuckle, "I don't think we've been formally introduced."

"Alec," he shot back, his cheeks hurting with the wide grin he flashed Magnus.

It was ridiculous, he realised, to have kissed already and only give their names to each other now. Ridiculous and exciting and definitively right: Alec's smile was brighter than it had been for the past months, his heart lighter and appeased, and he knew he would follow Magnus to the end of their universe and jump right into the next if it meant he could find him again one day.

  


**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to comment or give feedback on Twitter (@evilkeshi) and thank you very much for reading! :)


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